one more time
by blurred rainbows
Summary: AU. Nico wanted to do a lot of things in his life, but watch Percy Jackson try and make love to a ghost was not one of them. In which Zoë's gone, and with her, a part of Percy is too. A love story seen in Nico's perspective.


one more time

"This is against the divine laws, Percy, I don't think – "

"Do it, Nico," the demigod snarled, "I _need _to see her one more time."

.:.

_Secret glances. Stifled laughs. Hidden blushes._

_Silver auras. Silver circlets. Silver skin._

_She is beautiful. But she died and he watched life drain out of her, holding back words he desperately wanted to say._

.:.

The ocean was calm in the presence of its prince. The sky's dark without the glowing presence of the moon, and I officially decided that this idea was crazy _and _against the divine laws. But Percy asked me for this favor, and I'm still waiting for the day when I can actually deny him of one.

"The ritual, Nico," he muttered, seeming totally out of it, "start it."

I dumped the happy meal and drinks into the hole we had haphazardly dug moments before, chanting the ancient words in order to summon ghosts to the drinking hole. It wasn't hard, but it was tiring to summon the dead and even more exhausting to summon one _specific _ghost. My gut constricted painfully as I scoured the Underworld for her soul and I found her, sitting on a bench in Elysium. Finding her wasn't that hard, but pulling her soul out of my father's realm and onto this beach made me double over in pain.

I sat down in the sand, clutching my aching stomach. My gaze went to Percy, subconsciously hoping that he would be looking at me, but his entire attention was focused on the ghost drinking out of the shallow grave.

"Zoë," he whispered, obviously not believing his eyes.

The ex-huntress stood up, and her face looked the exact same as the first time I had met her. I never noticed it back then, but I guess that I could see why some people thought she was pretty, with her upturned nose and angular features. Percy, on the other hand, could not stop staring at her.

"Perseus Jackson?" she blinked, staring at the demigod. Her dark eyes ran over his body almost greedily, drinking in his change. The last time Zoë had seen Percy in person was when he was a scrawny thirteen year old, and the change must have been shocking for her.

"You can call me Percy, you know," the demigod told her, his tone still quiet and subdued. "You haven't changed a bit."

"I can't say the same for you," Zoë responded, cocking her head slightly. They stayed quiet, staring at the other with hungry eyes. Surprisingly, Percy shamelessly let his eyes wander all over her body, but I think the real shock was when Zoë let him. There was something in the air, something that I couldn't really place. I took a step back, knowing that I was intruding on something private.

"Why did you summon me?" she asked tentatively, for once watching her words in Percy's presence. It was almost as if she was scared of something.

Percy's posture was tense. "I defeated Kronos and ended the Titan War. But that wasn't it, there was another prophecy and another war with Gaea and her giants, but that didn't matter – we took her down anyways, and there's also a Roman camp and – " he paused, taking a shaky breath. "Just thought you wanted to know."

Zoe scoffed and rolled her eyes and even I could tell that she was being strangely affectionate. "I already knew. Word travels fast in the Underworld. The heroes that died had all achieved Elysium."

"That's good to know," Percy said. He looked like he was struggling to stop himself from having a mental breakdown, which wasn't really surprising because that's generally what happens when people talk to Zoë, where any small mistake might end up being a massive insult.

"Now don't be stupid, _Percy_," she stressed, eliciting a small smile from the Son of Poseidon, "tell me the real reason that you summoned me." I snorted. It was unlikely that Zoë had even realized that I was standing five steps from where they were, but I kept my silence and let them have their conversation.

The boy remained silent, and – _Hades_, were his eyes watering?

I took another silent step back, ready to pull myself into the shadows and escape. Percy _never _cried, and it seemed really likely that I had completely underestimated this entire thing; the summoning, his motives for meeting Zoë, and their relationship in general. There might've been more to everything.

"I wanted to see you," he admitted, blinking rapidly. Percy closed his eyes and sucked in a breath, shaking his head. "I _needed _to see you, Zoë."

Zoë's ghostly eyes widened in realization. "Percy, please, _not now_."

"Then when?" the demigod growled, taking a brave step towards the huntress. "Don't act like nothing ever happened between _us_. Don't act like you never cared."

Okay, I was _definitely _intruding on something personal. I felt a little bit of jealousy bubble up in the pit of my stomach, but I squashed the ugly emotion with a sense of practiced ease. But it was strange – I thought Percy was head over heels in love with Annabeth. Had we all read the son of Poseidon wrong?

The girl feigned indifference, but she had to turn away and drop her gaze from Percy's face. He strode forward, another brave, stupid, _Percy _move, until they were standing close enough to physically touch had she not been a dead person's soul.

"Look at me, Zoë," he commanded, and the ghost obeyed his command. They were really close, another tense moment of silence settling in between the two. "You were a hunter and swore off men for all of eternity, but you _still _stole my heart without a single effort."

The straightforward confession was surprising, to put it lightly. I almost expected this to be a huge joke, but the way that Percy said it and the way his voice trembled with passion told me that he wasn't lying.

Zoë took a step back. "Percy, stop." But her voice was weak, and the words came out more like a plea than a command. This was definitely a far cry from the Zoë that I had met all those years ago, but Percy always had the ability to bring out a different side to everybody.

"No," Percy said defiantly, still staring down the daughter of Atlas. "You've had all this time to think and you're still to afraid to face the truth. I know that, towards the end, my feelings for you were beginning to be returned. Just tell me, Zoë – I need to know."

"Why?" she whispered harshly, and her black eyes glittered in the minimal moonlight.

Percy didn't miss a beat in his answer. "Closure."

Zoë remained silent and Percy waited patiently. Even from where I was standing, I could feel the tension, thick and palpable. I didn't have to be a child of Aphrodite to know that something was going on in between them, and I wasn't sure if Percy liked Zoë a great deal more than she liked him or if Zoë was just being adamant in not admitting anything.

"I was scared," she ultimately conceded, staring at the ground. "You were a boy that defied all of the stereotypes that the Hunt had created over time. You were different, and it made me doubt everything that I believed in. You destroyed all the walls I had set up to protect myself."

Percy reached his hand out to cup Zoë's cheek. I expected his hand to pass straight through her face, but somehow Percy had once again defied everything I knew when his hand met something tangible. Zoë was just about as shocked as I was, but she played it off smoothly and leaned into his touch, closing her eyes.

Nobody would be stupid enough to disturb the moment that they were having, well, except for maybe Percy.

"Then do you?" Percy suddenly asked, rubbing her transparent cheeks softly with his thumb. The tenderness in his action was hard for me to watch, and it brought unwanted emotions into my own thoughts.

"I do," Zoë answered, sighing when Percy dropped his hand back to his side. "I always have. But… I swore an oath to Artemis, I can't – "

Percy kissed her.

What.

His hands tangled themselves in her hair as his lips pressed against hers, kissing her with such a furious passion that I felt my own cheeks heat up uncomfortably. Everything was so wrong, what was going on right now. Percy had a girlfriend that he loved enough to hop into Tartarus with, Zoë was a man-hating, sworn eternal virgin, and the fact that a living person managed to touch a ghost deemed the entire thing impossible in my mind. But somehow, they made it work.

"Annabeth – " Zoë gasped, between breaths.

"Don't… talk…" Percy managed, leaving a trail of kisses down her chin, moving to her long neck, and finally to her collarbone. The huntress moaned, shutting her eyes.

I gathered shadows around my body, ready to make my escape just in case things got a little bit too heated and personal. They had pretty much completely forgotten that I existed, which was fine since it was a feeling that I was used to anyways.

"My oath – "

"You were released from the oath when you died," Percy interrupted bluntly, his eyes dark with emotion. Somehow, I knew that lust wasn't controlling his actions. Maybe Annabeth wasn't the only person Percy loved; his heart was certainly big enough. I thought that Zoë would be somewhat against this, but after catching one look at the way she arched her back in pleasure and the way she looked at him, I could immediately tell that she wanted Percy just as much as he wanted her, if not more.

Percy stopped his onslaught, pulling back to look at Zoë through half lidded eyes. "I love you, Zoë Nightshade."

Hearing those words felt like a stab at my heart, but once again I ignored that sensation with a precision that only comes with experience. I saw Zoë swallow thickly, but judging by the way her spirit glowed, it was painfully obvious to me that those feelings were reciprocated. "I love you too, boy." She smirked, and for a second I saw the Zoë that I recognized.

But then Percy's lips were covering up that smirk and they went sprawling into the sand, a mess of limbs and moans. Percy's hands roamed every inch of her body and she let him explore, writhing in pleasure under his fingertips. Zoë's shirt came off somehow and that was when I decided that I've overstayed my welcome.

I shadow traveled away, away from that spot of endless contradictions. Heart pounding, cheeks embarrassingly red, I stumbled into the familiar walls of the Hades cabin before plopping down onto my bed, trying to quell the dangerous thoughts swirling in my brain.

I had a long list of things that I wanted to do, but watch Percy Jackson try and make love to a ghost was not one of them.

.:.

"Do you think I'll get to see you again?"

"No. I'm sure we've broken enough rules today."

"Just one more time?"

A pained smile. "I'm sorry."

.:.

I found Percy on the beach the next morning, sitting next to the hole that we had dug. His shirt was gone – naiads, he said, when I raised an eyebrow at his lack of attire – and had a curious odor around him. I blanched mentally when I realized what it might've been.

"You can't tell anyone," Percy murmured hollowly, staring at the ground. His eyes were bloodshot and he looked exhausted, and it was probably the worst I have ever seen Percy in. The hero looked vulnerable in this state, plus, judging by the puffiness of his eyes, he had just done a great deal of crying.

"I swear on the Styx," I swore, hearing the blast of thunder rumbling across the sky. Percy looked like a great weight had been lifted from his soldiers, and with that, he stood up.

"Don't get me wrong – I love Annabeth with all of my heart," Percy told me, shifting his gaze so that he was staring at the ocean. "But Zoë was the first girl that I had ever loved, and when she died… I…"

His voice trailed off, and I patted his bare back in an effort to reassure him. "It's fine, Perce. I get it."

But he trudged on, ignoring what I said. "I needed to know if she loved me back, if there was a chance," he confessed, looking mournfully at the turbulent ocean, "I needed that closure. But when I saw her again – she looked so real… I couldn't…"

The son of Poseidon swallowed thickly, taking a breath, "Loyalty is my fatal flaw, but at that moment the only loyalty I could remember was the loyalty I had to the first girl I had ever loved." He turned his seawater gaze to me. "Am I a bad person, Nico?"

"No," I answered immediately, shifting uncomfortably under his gaze. He turned away and I sighed gratefully, knowing that he'd never notice the effect he had on me.

We stayed there for an undetermined amount of time, Percy probably replaying last night's events over and over in his mind and me just being there for the sake of keeping Percy some company, plus, the guy looked like he needed someone to support him. I knew Percy was going to be fine – he came out of Tartarus and was cracking jokes about it a day later, but even that couldn't change a simple fact:

Zoë was gone, and with her, she took a part of Percy.

* * *

**So how was that for my first try at fanfiction?**

**All the characters are probably OOC and I apologize for that. This entire thing is a little AU – Nico still has a crush on Percy though, Percy loves Annabeth and Zoë, all that good stuff.**

**Please leave a review; I'd like to see how I did for my first shot.**


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